Homeland Security blinks on Real ID: No hassles on May 11
This map, updated earlier Wednesday by Homeland Security, shows all states as green--meaning no new air travel or federal building hassles on May 11. Current hassles will continue. The next deadline is December 31, 2009.
WASHINGTON--In the long-running Real ID staring match, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security ended up being the first to blink.
Homeland Security announced Wednesday that all 50 states and the District of Columbia will be technically Real ID-compliant by the May 11, 2008 deadline--even though many states actually have rejected the concept and have zero plans to embrace a national ID card.
This means Americans will face no new hassles when using their drivers licenses to enter federal buildings or fly on airplanes starting on May 11. That's a good thing.
But the way this turned out is so odd it's worth repeating. States including New Hampshire, Maine, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Washington, and Montana have enacted laws saying "hell no we'll never comply with Real ID." And Homeland Security officials carefully ignored those public votes of condemnation, instead pretending that those states really intend to acquiesce by the next major deadline of December 31, 2009. (See our special report on Real ID from earlier this year.)
"Now they've got 18 months to actually finish the process of being able to issue the cards that will meet the requirements," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told a small group of reporters and bloggers here on Wednesday. "We will have to watch this because the one thing that will be important is for a state not to be dilatory in completing the process."
That may have been a more serious threat a few years ago, when Chertoff was beginning his defense of the Real ID Act, which became law as part of a must-pass tsunami relief and Iraq emergency appropriations bill in 2005.
Now, however, state officials realize that Homeland Security is more likely to back down than not. The first sign of this came when the agency decided to treat a request for an extension past May 11 as a formal agreement to comply with all Real ID rules. The second came when Homeland Security retreated to its fallback position: even a symbolic gesture on the part of a governor amounted to full compliance.
A good example of this dynamic is what happened in the last few days involving Maine, a state that has rejected Real ID in no uncertain terms, and was the only will-have-trouble-at-airports state as of this morning. Its legislation approved last year says that it "refuses to implement the Real ID Act and thereby protest the treatment by Congress and the president of the states as agents of the federal government."
Maine nevertheless asked the feds not to penalize its travelers. Stewart Baker, Homeland Security assistant secretary for policy, replied in a letter that if Maine "is prepared to commit" to embracing Real ID by 5 p.m. on April 2, "we will grant an extension conditioned upon performance of these commitments." (The commitments Baker requested include using a Homeland Security identity verification system, using facial recognition technology so someone can't get two licenses, and so on.)
In response, Gov. John Baldacci, a Democrat, wrote back to Baker saying in part:
I will seek legislation to halt Maine's current practice of issuing licenses to those not present lawfully in the United States.
I will submit legislation, which includes a funding source and appropriations, that will adopt three changes in Maine's licensing processes:
Maine will enter into an agreement with USCIS and utilize the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements Program to verify DHS documents presented by non-citizens.
Maine will begin capturing and maintaining photographs of each individual applying for a license or state identification card, even if no license is issued.
It worked. Maine got a green check mark, and its licenses will continue to be valid for federal purposes after May 11--even though Baldacci was, for the most part, merely promising to introduce legislation. And the Maine legislators, who soundly rebuked the Bush administration by nearly unanimous votes last year, will be the ones to vote on it.
Last month, Montana took a similar approach. Its governor, Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat, has repeatedly denounced Real ID and even called on his counterparts (PDF) in other states to oppose it. But Homeland Security dutifully accepted a relatively hostile letter from Schweitzer--saying he will never "authorize implementation of the Real ID Act"--as good enough.
Now that the May 11 deadline has become effectively meaningless, the next major deadline is December 31, 2009, at which point Homeland Security currently says it will require "certification that the state has achieved the benchmarks set forth in the Material Compliance Checklist."
In political terms, that's a long time--and a new presidential administration--away. Some opponents of Real ID are already predicting that no state will actually comply with the deadline, or, alternatively, the next administration will find a way to quietly dispose of Real ID without much fanfare.
"DHS is not in power here," said Jim Harper, the director of information policy studies at the free-market Cato Institute. "The states are in power. DHS has done all it could, but from a position of weakness...DHS put the best face it could on its capitulation to states with backbone. A lot more states will recognize that they own this issue, they control this debate."
News.com's Anne Broache contributed to this report from Washington, D.C.
Declan McCullagh, CNET News' chief political correspondent, chronicles the intersection of politics and technology. He has covered politics, technology, and Washington, D.C., for more than a decade, which has turned him into an iconoclast and a skeptic of anyone who says, "We oughta have a new federal law against this." E-mail Declan. 
At least a few handful of states remembered the principles of liberty. Perhaps it will remind the cowards of the only concept that really matters.
Your mindset is the reason nothing will change, you honestly believe there is a difference between the Republicrats & Democans. You keep electing elitists who ignore the Constitution and you will continue to get this type of politician and it simply does not matter whether he/she has a 'D' or an 'R' next to his/her name.
Wake up.
No, what's more likely to happen is something that the Real ID
act might have prevented in some alternate universe had it been
implemented in 1988 leading to a round of class action lawsuits
against the states. Then we'll all be crying.
After all, this is a world where you have to be a "friend of Hillary"
to get to the front of the health-care line, a "buddy of McCain"
to be able to advertise your support (or opposition) to
legislation, a "stockholder of Halliburton" to avoid a tour of duty
in Iran.
RealID is the least of your worries, mate.
camera 30 yards away to be able to take a picture of me and say
YES thats John Doe when it links with the database. Thats
FREAKY. What are we trying to do, follow Soccer Mom around
the town and see what type of BREAD and MILK she buys??!! Big
Brother has outgrown his britches. Time to cut the cord and let
him sink.
I have been lucky until this year. I missed the updated State
cards by a few weeks. Sadly they will catch me this year and get
my cuffed into the system. When are they going to start
chipping us or inking our kids when they are born, claiming it's
for safety.
I'd rather be invisible than all over the nations computer
systems for another datathief to bust in and steal all of our ID's.
I'm not anxious to see the news when the haxers hit it the first
time and the panic it causes.
On March 21, Montana?s Attorney General, Mike McGrath, sent a letter to DHS Secretary Chertoff, informing him that Montana?s licensing requirements are already "one of the most secure in the nation," and that he cannot authorize implementation of REAL ID because the Montana legislature has forbidden it. DHS replied that it would have to treat McGrath?s letter as "a request for an extension," to which Governor Schweitzer responded, "I sent them a horse and if they want to call it a zebra, that?s up to them. They can call it whatever they want, and it wasn?t a love letter."
"Hmmm, a letter that uses the word Real ID... Extension Accepted!"
"Hmmm, a letter that uses the word Iraq... Thanks for supporting the war!"
So a Democratically controlled Congress and a Republican
President pass a law that says state issued ID's should
Have some sort of biometric identifier and check to make sure
someone else is not using your picture.
Why would I not want this?
If I still were in University and under 21 maybe, If I was an illegal
alien using someone else's identity and SS# definitely. But the
rest of us? It seems like a way to at least partially cut down on identity theft.
Oh yeah, Real ID is a Bush Administration boondoggle, and we've all seen how much they care about Constitutional Law and people's rights, haven't we?
hitler's atrocities was being covered. Don't destroy our nation just
because you CHOOSE to remain IGNORANT of past atrocities.
Papers please.
Does my Government not believe enough in me or my fellow country men/woman to think we wouldn't stand up for our own country??? Why do we need all this policing in a country where we have the RIGHT to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (July 4,1776)???
And why on earth are the States except for the select few buckling under the Federal Government?
Just wondering here but When did the Federal Government have total Power and Control over the States???
One more time, someone please explain to me why we need a REAL ID. Can one not think on their own to know that if someone really really wants to do something weather to this country or to someone or anything else NO REAL ID is going to stop them. If the Government has all this money to waste on Real ID why don't they find better ways to use it in securing our borders or curtailing illegal aliens or the thousands of families in need or the thousands of children with out health care? Children in this country are going to bed at night without a meal, sick from no Dr. Education big joke there. Please people help me out here cause
"I'm not understanding why people want to GIVE UP THEIR FREEDOMS".........
10th Admendment:
?The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it
to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.?
D. Scott McGregor
scott@scottmcgregor.com
By showing easily counterfeited documents.
Anything that can be made, can be copied.
This solves nothing and brings us closer to being the new soviet union.
Also, unauthorized foreigners are called illegal immigrant and not "aliens". Let's not dehumanize our fellow men.
- Your Papers Are Not In Order
- by jtfan2004 April 6, 2008 2:01 PM PDT
- Ihre Papiere sind nicht in Reihenfolge!
- Reply to this comment
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(28 Comments)Zu den Haftlager mit Ihnen!
Lang lebend Adolf Busch